Highly recommended: From Poverty to Prosperity: Intangible Assets, Hidden Liabilities and the Lasting Triumph Over Scarcity, by Arnold Kling and my American Enterprise Institute colleague Nick Schulz. It’s a bracing history of what the authors call Economics 2.0. “Economics 1.0 is about scarcity,” they write. “Economics 2.0 is about abundance, which arises from technological progress.” Conventional economics teaches us that markets can allocate resources efficiently, but Economics 2.0 gives us insights into how social arrangements combined with the efforts of entrepreneurs can make resources less scarce and make better lives possible for us all. The book is a bracing read, with interviews of famed economists illuminating their points. When I got it I just intended to skim it, but found I couldn’t put it down.
